Mahindra Saves Italian Design Firm Pininfarina From Certain Death

According to Bloomberg, Mahindra & Mahindra are set to purchase the famed Italian design house Pininfarina for a sum total of around $185 million. Mahindra are more widely known within its home country of India as the country’s largest manufacturer of SUVs, so it is unclear how the two companies will interact with one another going forward.
Besides the initial payout mentioned above, Mahindra is set to additionally invest over 20 million Euros into Pininfarina to help the design house unshackle itself from years of mounting debt and unprofitability. The hope here is that Mahindra invests enough into the iconic design house that it once again returns to the world as a dominant player.
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Over the years, Pininfarina has designed countless gorgeous pieces of metal artwork. The company began life as a coachbuilder in 1930, and built custom bodies for individual customers. Post WWII, the coachbuilder began its design consultation phase and went on to create such iconic shapes as the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider, the Cadillac Eldorado Brougham, and countless Ferrari’s over the years.
One of the design house’s last coach built creations was the Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina and the 2010 Lancia Stratos concept. The P4/5 was designed and engineered on an existing Ferrari Enzo chassis for James Glickenhaus who asked Pininfarina for something that was far more evocative than the Enzo. The company obviously succeeded. While the Stratos could have become a real car, only one was built, and the design was sadly shelved.
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Mahindra already have a working relationship with Pininfarina as the pair previously collaborated on the company’s SUV lineup as well as a the Reva Halo electric sports car that debuted at the 2014 Delhi Auto Expo.
According to Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra, “The legendary high-end design credentials of Pininfarina will significantly enhance the design capabilities of the entire Mahindra group. Given the increasing design sensibilities of today’s consumers, product design will greatly influence customer choice.” Think of this as the same type of investment that assisted Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata. This very well could begin a new age of design and aesthetics for the company. Fingers crossed.
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